Aberfeldie v Keilor
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THESE two sides faced off at Clifton Park last week and the Blues held off Abers to pick up a four-point win.
Both sides took the opportunity to rest a number of players, but the result will still give Keilor confidence after a disappointing finish to the season.
It broke a six-game winning streak for Abers, their first loss since going down to Essendon Douttas Stars in Round 11.
After going undefeated in the first eight rounds, Keilor have since lost to Aberfeldie, Pascoe Vale, Greenvale and Maribyrnong Park. The win against Abers was their first win against a finals side since defeating Greenvale back in Round 5.
A full strength Aberfeldie side is always an incredibly daunting prospect though, and they’ve really hit their stride over the last two months.
Their midfield runs deep, from Luke Blackwell, Brock McLean and Wayne Patak down to Josh Cubillo, Nick Cattapan and Mark Lynch.
They feature the most dangerous forward line in the league with Kyle Reimers as spearhead and a range of support options from Jack McNamara, Angus Grigg and Zach Hislop.
Keilor will be hopeful of having Michael Tanner and David Isbister available to line up down back.
Dean Galea is an obvious danger man up forward with 92 goals for the season so far. They have no shortage of forwards though – all of Luke McGuane, David Gourdis, Jack Kennedy, Ryan Bathie and Luke Cartelli have kicked more than 20 goals this year.
SUNDAY RADIO GAME | Greenvale v Pascoe Vale
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The Jets had a nice return to form with a big win against West Coburg, but the Panthers had a tough time of it in a last quarter capitulation against Strathmore.
The Panthers led by 18 points at three-quarter time, before going down by a single point after the Mores kicked five goals to two in an exciting final term.
Considering Pascoe Vale’s consistency over the season it should only be a small blip and in part due to the resting of some key players, but it’s not an ideal preparation for a final.
Greenvale were convincing across the ground, their win set up by some strong midfield work from Nick Lower, Josh Smith and Fort Caruso.
Their forward structure was impressive with small forward Addam Maric kicking five and medium forward Jacob Thompson influential with three.
The Matthew Smith forward experiment continued and it paid dividends, he kicked three to take his season tally to 23.
The midfield battle will likely decide this clash with both sides featuring good depth and top end talent.
Nick Lower, Fort and Nat Caruso, Josh Smith, Stephen Brewer and Samuel Zumbo against Ben Warren, Daniel Harris, Michael Cassinides, Dean Soncin and Ryan Jackson.
A key to this battle will be the health of Greenvale ruckman Fabian Deluca. He was absent last week and Kurtis Sanajko was forced to spend most of the time rucking as a result.
If Deluca is available, he should have the advantage against Dylan Reid and Giles Guest.
